Joaquin Phoenix earned a Golden Globe and picked up an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Johnny Cash in 2005′s Walk the Line. Interestingly, he competed with one of his former co-stars to land the role.

The hit movie saw Joaquin starring alongside Reese Witherspoon and received warm reviews upon its release.

During a recent interview, Joaquin‘s former co-star revealed why they rejected the chance to play the music legend, which helped secure him the part.

Find out who turned down what became Joaquin Phoenix’s role in Walk the Line…

Russell Crowe, who starred alongside Joaquin in 2000′s Gladiator, confirmed that he passed on the chance to play Johnny during an appearance at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

“I love Johnny Cash,” he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Despite that, he didn’t feel it was the right part for him.

The actor continued, explaining, “I thought it was cheating. I thought it was like, ‘OK, all of these things like Grammy nominations, all that sort of stuff will come with that movie.’ But music to me is so personal that I didn’t want it to come to me because I was pretending to be somebody else. That is what the acting is for. But the music is, selfishly, about my songs.”

Did he have any regrets? Russell admitted that, “my reasons seem very insignificant and insufficient because I would have had a great time on that movie.”

If you missed it, Russell revealed something that had Joaquin very concerned while they were working on Gladiator years ago.

Did you know that Joaquin‘s next role will be very gay and very explicit?!